


three: delirium

by ginger__snapped



Series: Rin's Whumptober 2019 [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Delirium, Whumptober, a bitch is trying, also!, anyway, mental anguish is lowkey in here!, number three - Freeform, please dont read it as such, please enjoy, purely platonic relationship guys, stay safe babes!, this isnt starker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 06:02:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20887295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginger__snapped/pseuds/ginger__snapped
Summary: Fifteen days, six hours, and thirty-two minutes.That’s how long it had been since Peter had gone missing.





	three: delirium

“Three. Six. Nine. Twelve. Fifteen. Eighteen. Twenty-two. Twenty-four. Twenty-seven. Thirty. Thirty-three. Thirty-six. Thirty-nine. Forty-two. Forty-five. Forty-eight. Fifty-two.  _ No.  _ Fifty- fifty-one -”

“Too late.”

“No, no,  _ please!” _

~~~

Fifteen days, six hours, and thirty-two minutes. 

That’s how long it had been since Peter had gone missing. 

~~~

“Mr. Stark! Please try to pay attention.”

Tony glanced up at Everett Ross, shaking his head once. 

“I’m afraid this meeting will have to be postponed.,” he said, voice tight. “I have an emergency - I need to go.”

He ignored the cries from the Rouges, shoving his phone in his pocket and running out of the room. 

As soon as he was outside, he let the suit form around him, shooting off back towards the Tower.

“Incoming call from Pepper Potts.”

“Tony! What the hell? You can’t just… storm out of a meeting like that! Especially that one!”

“Pep, I - Peter, he…” Tony trailed off, throat closing up. 

“Oh, Tony.” 

Pepper’s voice was soft, and it was what pushed him over the edge, tears blurring his vision. 

“Fri - autopilot. Get me to the Tower.”

~~~

He came to all at once. 

He jerked, gasped, and promptly choked. 

“And he wakes.”

Peter glanced wildly around, eyes struggling to focus in the dim lighting of wherever he was.

“Were you just standing there waiting for me to

wake up solely to make a dramatic statement?”

“Shut up,” the man growled, and Peter flinched as he suddenly came into his view, hands slapping down on the arms of the chair that Peter was chained to.

Peter raised an eyebrow, staring the man in the face. 

He was young and attractive, with light brown hair and bright blue eyes. 

“It’s a free country. I’ll speak if I want to.”

That earned him a slap on the face. 

Peter winced, moving his jaw in a circle. 

“That was not cool, dude.”

“Sedate him,” the man ordered, standing up abruptly and walking away. 

“Wait, what? Dude, please don’t. That would really put a kink in my plans!” 

But then there was a sharp stinging in his forearm, and Peter’s eyes fluttered shut. 

~~~

“What the actual  _ fuck _ , Stark.”

Tony yelped, turning to see Natasha fucking Romanoff standing in the entrance to his workshop, one hand on her hip and face livid. 

“Get out of my home.”

“You can’t just storm out like that! That meeting was important, Tony. And just because you don’t want to man up and let us go-”

“My kid is missing, Romanoff!” Tony yelled. 

There was a beat of silence. 

“Pardon?”

“Peter. He -  _ Jesus.  _ You know what? It doesn’t fucking matter. Not like you actually care about my personal life anyway. Just get out.”

He turned away from her, his hand running over his face as he blinked back hot tears. 

“Oh, Tony.”

Then her arms were around him, and he was caught off guard, vulnerable and exposed - but he didn’t really care at the moment. Peter was missing, and he figured to hell with it, a Russian spy wouldn’t be a bad person to have helping him. 

“Help me,” he whispered into her collarbone. “Please.”

~~~

“Again, if you can only count to 1000 by multiples of three, you’ll be set free. It’s quite simple, Pete.”

Peter knew, in his mind, that it was impossible for him to count to 1000 by multiples of three - it wasn’t a clean number. But, he was cold and miserable, and every part of his body hurt, and he was delirious and half-awake. 

So he tried again, failed, and was rewarded with another cut to his back. 

“This is your ninety-seventh time failing today, Pete. Come on, kiddo, I know you can do better. You’re a smart kid, why else would Stark pick you?”

Try. Fail. Cut. And again. 

“Okay, folks!” Peter lifted his head, still muttering numbers under his breath. 

“We’re done with that for today - the boy is such an idiot, he can’t even count. Why don’t you set him up and we’ll give daddy dearest a nice little call?”

~~~

“Boss, there is an incoming call from an unknown number.”

“Why would I care, Fri?” Tony mumbled, eyes scanning over yet another document.

“I believe they are the ones with Peter,” Friday said carefully. 

Tony’s head snapped up, Natasha carefully looking at him. 

“Accept it, Fri. I don’t care. And try to trace it.”

The screen in front of Tony crackled to life, the image displayed on it making Tony want to vomit. 

Peter - his kid - was sitting in a chair, tied with ropes (Jesus, how badly was he hurt?), his skin bruised and bloody. 

“Stark,” a voice said, and Tony’s grip tightened on his chair. 

“As you can see, we have your little prodigy here. Though, I wouldn’t say he’s much of a prodigy after all. The little bastard-” (how  _ dare _ he) “-can’t even count properly.” A sigh of mock disappointment. 

“Anyway, I know you’re tracing this call, but, it has been quite a long time. So, I think I’ll let you see your kiddo once more. The blockers have been lifted, and I’m assuming you have a location. So, come get your kid.” 

Tony was moving, hope flaring through his body. 

“Or, his body.”

A gunshot. 

A scream of pain that would forever embed itself in Tony’s nightmares. 

His own gasp, Natasha’s hands keeping him upright. 

“We… go… now… Tony!”

He gasped, eyes focusing on Natasha’s face. 

“We have to go now, Tony. We have the location, I called Wanda. I know you two aren’t on good terms, but now is not the time for petty arguments. Now get your ass in a suit and go save your kid.”

~~~

All he could feel was pain. 

The cuts on his back had stopped healing. He hadn’t had any food. They shot him - and he was slowly losing his grasp on reality. 

Visions of people he knew kept flitting in his mind, so close and so real, yet… not. 

He just wanted someone to come get him. 

He was so weak. 

He couldn’t count (at all - the man had been sure to tell him of that) the number of times he had imagined Tony busting in with the Iron Man armour and saving him from the hellhole was in. 

And - speak of the devil - he was having another hallucination. 

This one was different - Black Widow and the girl with the red magic were with Tony this time. 

He shrunk in his chair as the screams in his mind grew louder and louder. 

And then there were hands touching him, and he flinched, screaming. 

“No! Don’t touch me! Please! Three, six, nine, twelve, eighteen, twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-six - no! Shit! Please, please leave me alone! I promise I can do it!”

But the hands wouldn’t leave him alone - in fact, they were pulling him close, touch more gentle than anything he had felt in what seemed like forever. 

And: “Oh, Peter, honey, I’m so sorry.”

And Peter opened his eyes to see Tony. 

There. 

_ No. _

“Get off of me! You’re not real! Not real!  _ Please! _ ”

~~~

“He’s stable. He’s sedated, but stable.”

~~~

“I kept hallucinating that you were there,” Peter said softly. “And… I really didn’t believe that you were there.”

A pause. 

“I was so scared,” he whispered. 

“Me too, buddy. I’m so sorry we couldn’t get there sooner.”

“I forgive you,” Peter said softly, fiddling with the edge of the sheets. 

“You don’t have to.”

“But I will, because I love you. In the platonic, father-son style, you know? Being there made me realize… you have a lot of similarities to Ben. I mean, in like, the way you are towards me? Does that make sense? Sorry, I should-”

“Kiddo, I love you too,” Tony mumbled, pulling him into a hug. “And yeah. I agree. I love you in the father-son style too. And I hope your okay with that.”

“One hundred percent,” Peter whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> lmao i have a shit ton of English homework and im hella procrastinating but its chill. anyway, ya girl is gonna see billie eilish and im fucking pumped. yell at me on tumblr! @marvel-and-the-gays


End file.
